Sport

Dhoni powers India towards parity

India captain MS Dhoni charged towards a brutal century to guide India to near-parity with Australia on day three of the first Test in Chennai.

At the tea break India was 6 for 371, nine runs short of Australia's first innings 380, with the excellent Dhoni unbeaten on 97 off just 116 deliveries.

Ravichandran Ashwin is the other not-out batsman on 3.

The skipper had shared in a 128-run partnership with centurion Virat Kohli (107), after Nathan Lyon (2 for 115) had dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for 81.

Tendulkar (81) and Kohli were restricted well by the Australian paceman as runs proved hard to come by in the early overs of the day.

Lyon reaped the benefits of the fast bowlers' tight line when he landed a zipping off-spinner on the patch to bowl Tendulkar through the gate after the star batsman added only 10 runs to his overnight score.

But Dhoni's arrival saw the shackles come off for India as he and Kohli scored 128 runs off 26 overs to put the tourists on the back foot.

Kohli was eventually dismissed by Lyon when he clubbed a ball straight to a jumping Mitchell Starc at mid-off to end a patient, mature innings that lasted 206 balls.

In contrast, Dhoni was operating at over a run-a-ball well into his 70s, before reining himself in as he lost partners and battled the nervous 90s.

After Kohli's wicket, Ravindra Jadeja was dismissed for 16 thanks to a peach of a delivery from James Pattinson (4 for 71), who came around the wicket to clip the off-stump from out wide.